Two Centuries of Piano Design
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Keynotes: Two Centuries of Piano Design r.*i :«: Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Recent Acquisitions Gallery May 29 —November 29, 1985 This exhibition has been made possible by Reliance Group Holdings Inc. '•UM U.v •'• ¿il. -4pvn:.; s THF. METRI POI /..!'. MUSEUM OF ART • ARCHIVES Keynotes: Two Centuries of Piano Design Laurence Libin Curator Department of Musical Instruments © 1985 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Forward Keynotes: Two Centuries of Piano Design offers a drivers and cars. Today's pianos are relatively selection from over 70 pianos in the Museum's standardized and audiences have few opportunities collection. Not even the entire group could to compare different brands. Yet, as late as 1900 comprehensively survey the history of this most each musical capital espoused locally made pianos, familiar instrument, so we have not tried to show as they did distinctive local beers. In Vienna alone every stage of the piano's evolution but rather to during Beethoven's lifetime scores of piano makers illustrate interesting aspects of piano design during vied for endorsements. the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of Despite occasional limp-eared assertions that the these examples are handsome pieces of furniture; modern concert grand is superior to any earlier others, such as the oldest piano in the world (no. piano, the best older instruments were perfectly 3), are most important from a historical standpoint. suited to their tasks. Sensitive composers precisely All have distinctive musical qualities. exploited their pianos' capabilities and worked Within 200 years of its invention shortly before within their limits; except under the hands of 1700, the piano had become a basic tool for music extraordinary artists, modern pianos are no more education, a status symbol, and a major item of apt for Classical intimacy and nuance than the international commerce. It brought nearly the entire Concorde jet is for crop dusting. Each instrument repertoire of Western music under the pianist's has its place. We cannot know how Mozart would command through transcriptions, and inspired have written for today's pianos, but he was certainly Classical and Romantic masterworks. So inspired by his own. This exhibition aims to recall complicated did the piano's mechanism become, the variety, novelty, and quality of old pianos, and that its routine maintenance gave rise to a to encourage exploration of their merits. specialized profession; regrettably, this distanced most players from knowledge of their instruments' workings, much as auto mechanics stand between Pitch is indicated by the following system: g va etc. * CC 8v;> Cc c1 c2 c3 c4 1 Square Piano Unknown maker, Germany, late eighteenth century incidental factor. The undamped notes overlap and Practically the smallest, simplest piano imaginable, fade gradually, obtaining resonance at the expense this "square" is a cleverly designed commercial of clarity. product, not a homemade folk instrument. It was Obscure during the Baroque era, the piano considered a household appliance rather than a toy, achieved prominence after 1760 as the keyboard though its narrow C-f3 keyboard nicely suits a polyphony of Bach's generation gave way to the child's hand. The mechanism, which owes nothing thinner-textured, dynamically expressive Classical to Cristofori's sophisticated invention (no. 3), style. Then, under the impact of social and involves only two moving parts: the key, and a lever technological revolutions, its growth was explosive. hinged to it that thrusts the wedge-shaped hammer Between this square and the following one (no. 2), upward when pinched at the other end against an made perhaps 60 years later, lies a world of overhanging rail. Each hammer strikes a single difference. In contrast, the modern piano has not damperless string. changed significantly in the last century. The square piano derives its form from the Gift of Bernardus Boekelman, 1911 clavichord. Unlike a clavichord's key-embedded 11.176.4 tangents which contact the strings while they sound and absorb some of their vibration, a piano's hammers bounce away so the strings vibrate freely. One advantage of this system lies in the lever that accelerates the hammer's motion, affording a stronger blow and louder sound. The point at which the hammer strikes is a crucial determinant of tone quality. This tiny piano's timbre, however, is an 2 Square Piano Nunns & Clark, New York City, 1853 assembled from components that include a pipe Built in the year of New York's Crystal Palace brace across the front; one-piece cast-iron frames, exhibition, this carved rosewood piano celebrates developed in Boston, were not generally adopted ostentatious taste. Renaissance architecture and by New York builders before the Steinway era, ornament inspired its ornate case. Polychrome which began the year this piano was made. foliage and flowers decorate the iron frame within. Robert Nunns and John Clark were English The AAA-a4 keyboard has mother-of-pearl naturals immigrants who entered partnership here in 1833- and tortoise-shell accidentals with abalone inserts. Nunns's brother, William, helped establish their A concavity in the front molding fits a round factory at Setauket, Long Island; later, he started a medallion centered on a removable panel. This separate firm that employed the young William medallion displays bas-relief profiles of a lady and Steinway. Inside this piano are the names of several gentleman, probably the original owners, together journeymen. David Perrin, the key maker, was first with two dolphins and a trident representing the listed in city directories as a butcher. He and 82 co whaling trade. workers produced 300 pianos worth $150,000 in Two pedals in a massive support control the 1855 alone, placing Nunns & Clark in the first rank dampers and interpose cloth muting strips between of New York builders before the Civil War. hammers and strings. The felt-covered hammers Gift of George Lowther, 1906 may have been made by a newly patented machine 06.1312.1 that Nunns & Clark bought in 1853- An advanced "French rocker" action allows convenient regulation of the heavy touch. The iron frame is 3 Grand Piano Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florence, Italy, 1720 for harpsichord (gravicembalo col piano e forte, This is the oldest extant piano. A result of "harpsichord with [graduated] soft and loud," experiments dating back to the 1690s when its hence "pianoforte" or simply "piano"), the inventor left his native Padua for employment at the instrument's possibilities interested adventurous Medici court, this durable instrument has remained composers such as Domenico Scarlatti. The first in use for 265 years. Repairs and modifications published piano music, which employs gradual and begun in the eighteenth century include altering sudden dynamic changes, was Lodovico Giustini's the compass from FF-c3 (omitting FF-sharp and GG- seminal book of sonatas printed at Florence in 1732, sharp) to the present C-f % rehinging the hammers the year after Cristofori's death. and replacing their hollow parchment heads with The Marchese Scipione Maffei wrote a description solid wood ones, and installing a new soundboard. of Cristofori's pianos in 1711; a German translation The structure, however, remains essentially intact. appeared in 1725 and was reprinted five times Two similar, later Cristofori pianos survive. before 1800. In 1736 the Saxon court organ builder, Cristofori did more than devise a pressure- Gottfried Silbermann, showed a piano he had sensitive hammer mechanism to supercede the copied from Cristofori's design to J. S. Bach, who harpsichord's plucking action. In this piano he found it tonally weak and hard to play. Later, Bach elevated the hitchpin rail off the soundboard to free approved Silbermann's efforts and acted as his agent more vibrating area. Below this rail the soundboard in selling a piano. The Cristofori-Silbermann model, rests on a wall isolated from the painted outer case; derived from the Italian harpsichord, became the braces penetrate this wall to buttress the bent side prototype of the modern grand piano. against the strings' pull. Most importantly, this The Crosby Brown Collection, 1895 piano's tone quality changes markedly from bass to 89.4.1219 treble; the bass is warm and reedy, the treble duller Ex coll.: Cosimo III de' Medici; Grand Ducal Palace, and short-sustaining. Sienna; Dr. Fabbio Mocenni; Ernesta Martelli Cristofori's invention was intended for chamber (loaned to the National Museum, Florence); Diego music, where its dynamic expressiveness is most Martelli, Florence effective. First considered a radically different type 4 "Lying Harp" Piano Johann Matthäus Schmabl, Ulm, Germany, ca. 1770 the bridge and interpose leather tabs between the Mozart allegedly practiced on a piano of this type bare wood hammers and strings. The unusually while he travelled. Its shape resembles a small harp narrow C-f3 keyboard has bone slips covering the laid sideways with its curved neck at the right. The accidentals and embossed paper fronts on the case is of pear and false-grained softwood. Thick notched and double-scored fruitwood naturals. varnish, legs, and base are later additions. Schmahl came from a large family of Swabian The two-part action consists of the key and the keyboard makers. He apparently made many pianos hammer lever pivoted above it on a cord drawn of this distinctive shape, only one of which survives through a comb-like frame. A short post fixed to with his signature. each key transmits its motion to the hammer lever. The Crosby Brown Collection, 1889 The whole action slides out through an opening in 89.4.2910 the back. Lacking dampers, the single-strung piano has a lingering tone. Hand stops lower a mute over 5 Square Piano (Pantaleon) Johann Christoph Jeckel and Christian Jeckel, The oak-veneered case, which rests on a separate Worms, Germany, 1790 stand, has ornamental inlay over the ebony and A handwritten label beneath the soundboard bone FF-f 3 keyboard.